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Susan R. Sesack, Ph.D.

Professor, Neuroscience

Research Summary:

Dr. Sesack’s research focuses on the monoamine and cortical systems that regulate cognitive and emotional behaviors. These systems have been implicated in the pathophysiology of mental and affective disorders and represent the circuitry that is disrupted by substance abuse. Progress toward the understanding and treatment of diseases that affect higher brain function depends on a detailed knowledge of the synaptic and extrasynaptic actions of monoamines on the cortical and subcortical circuits that regulate behavior. The research in Dr. Sesack’s laboratory focuses mainly on the organization of brainstem dopamine, and norepinephrine neurons and their interactions with the cerebral cortex. Questions regarding synaptic connectivity, receptor and transporter localization, and alterations in morphology due to environmental manipulations are addressed using light and electron microscopic immunocytochemical and tract-tracing methods. Subjects currently under investigation in the laboratory include: (1) synaptic inputs to different populations of midbrain dopamine neurons, (2) multiple substrates for prefrontal cortical regulation of brainstem monoamine cells, (3) anatomical localization by light and electron microscopy of receptors and transporters for monoamines, and (4) alterations of normal brain structure and receptor or transporter expression caused by chronic antidepressant drug treatment, chronic stress, or selective brain lesions. The results of research in the Sesack laboratory provide important connectivity data for models of brain function and insight into how experience alters brain anatomy.